Whew!

I have never been so glad to have a day be over. One more day closer to recovery! Thatcher did amazing yesterday. Dr Hawkins came out at 1:30 and said his heart was in relatively good shape. He gave the Gortex that he used to patch the VSD and it is as big as a nickel! I would never have thought it was that big- especially when his heart is only as big as a plum! He was ex-tubated last night about 7:30 and started eating by mouth at 10:30. I fed him some Pedialyte and was able to get a sleep room. Thank the Lord for XANAX! Slept like a baby! I woke up at 5:00 this morning and went to sit with him until 7 wen they kicked me out for shift change. I fed him 120 cc's of formula this morning and he is on Loritab now instead of the morphine. He whines a little with some breaths but I dont think he is anything but uncomfortable. His temperature is still up and his pulse is about 15 points too high, so he will work on that today and then I think we will be moved to the floor. He is so brave. They are taking more and more lines out each passing hour and weaning him off of much of the "life support". He is still "draining" (Bleeding from his chest tube through his sternum) but is still doing quite well. He was watching a little Pooh Bear on the tv this morning although I am not sure he could hear anyone because he was so groggy. The nurses are great here. They only have Thatcher as their patient so they can devote all their time to him for their entire 12 hour shift. This morning the nurse from yesterday (who is also a life flight nurse) is back and I am happy about that. Last night we had a great nurse too. Ill write more when I know more. Thanks again for all of your love and support. We truly appreciate it more than you know. Much love, Tami and Thatcher